


Swingin' in the Hall

by agrajag



Series: Swingin' in the Halls [1]
Category: Suits (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-05
Updated: 2012-06-05
Packaged: 2017-11-07 00:13:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/424759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agrajag/pseuds/agrajag
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mike starts to find seemingly random gifts in his locker from a secret admirer. Even though he has had a crush on popular, jock and basically unavailable Harvey since he can remember, he is starting to be won over by someone he doesn’t even know.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Swingin' in the Hall

**Author's Note:**

> Multimedia story with pictures uploaded from my horrible camera phone. I apologize in advance for the quality. Title is taken from the song Fuck School by The Replacements because my friend Lisa said, “Pick a lyric from a song that reminds you of school.”
> 
> This was also written for the Suits-a-thon.

Mike Ross looked forward to English every day. It was not his best subject. In fact, it was far from it. Mike was good at memorizing facts and excelled in history, math and science. English was all about interpretation, so Mike usually ended up riding the coattails of other students. No, he looked forward to English because he sat next to none other than Harvey Specter. Mike had a crush the size of the entire Milky Way galaxy on Harvey since the fourth grade when his friend Trevor said he “liked liked” a girl in their class named Jenny and Mike replied he thought the red Power Ranger was cute. Harvey’s popularity was not daunting in fourth grade, but now it was junior year and Mike was petrified. He settled for gazing at Harvey in between Mr. Louis’s questions. He always dressed impeccably while Mike had hand me down jeans and baggy, flannel shirts. Mike knew that Harvey and him would never happen, but it did not stop him from dreaming.

His day dreaming got him into quite a lot of trouble, though, with Mr. Louis. Mr. Louis was one of those teachers who tried to be the students’s friend. He insisted they call him by first name and he would tell them about his weekend, but no one thought he was cool. They were to start King Lear that day, and Mr. Louis was passing out the books. Mike was, at that moment, thinking about how awesome it would be to have a Farscape marathon with Harvey.

“Mr. Ross. Care to join us back in British Literature?” Mr. Louis asked.

Several students laughed. Rachel, Mike’s best friend, shot him a glance from the front of the room. Mike sighed, more worried about her lecture than any trouble he might be in with his teacher.

“Sorry,” he mumbled as he took his copy of the play. He resisted the urge to tack on a n’uncle.

Mr. Louis finished handing out everyone’s copies and returned to the front of the classroom. Harvey leaned over and whispered, “For the smartest kid in class, you don’t really pay attention, do you?”

Harvey talking to Mike was not an uncommon occurence. Sitting next to each other meant they were assigned to do group work together often, but recently Harvey was initiating contact for other reasons. Mike was still confused why Harvey would stake his reputation to talk to an infamous ‘geek’ and ‘loser.’

“What can I say? Shakespeare is boring.”

“King Lear maybe, but Hamlet isn’t half bad. You’d like the fantasy element. You know, ghost running amok in Denmark.”

Mike was sure his jaw had hit the floor before Mr. Louis told everyone to quiet down so he could give them their reading assignment. He ran to Rachel as soon as the bell rang.

“You have to stop day dreaming in class,” she said before he could start. “English is important too, you know.”

“Now why would I do that? You like being better than me in at least one subject,” Mike said. As soon as he did, he knew it was too harsh. Rachel had a good sense of humor, though, and laughed.

“Shut up lover boy. So, why do you look so happy even after Mr. Louis yelled at you?”

“He’s a nerd,” Mike shouted. Other students in the hallway stared at him.

“Yeah, that isn’t exactly news.”

“No, not Mr. Louis. Harvey is a secret nerd. He was talking about Shakespeare and…”

“Oh God,” Rachel groaned. “Mike, you have got to give up on Harvey. Actually, Jenny told me about this guy who works at the book store with her. She could set you up. I know your type is tall, dark and unavailable, but I think you’ll like him.”

“Yeah, okay,” Mike mumbled. “I’ll check my schedule. Meet you on the concourse after school?”

“Like always.” Rachel waved and left to head to her next class.

Mike headed to his locker to drop off King Lear before he went to study hall. As he walked, he thought about what Rachel had said. His crush on Harvey had not held him back. He had dated a few guys before, but Rachel was right. Harvey was Mike’s type to a tee. He was charming and good looking. He was smarter than he usually led people to believe. They assumed he was a typical jock since he played football, but he was good at school as well as on the field.

‘Basically perfect,’ Mike thought as he entered his combination. When he opened the door, something fell at his feet. He bent down and carefully picked it up. It was a small pin with the Dexter logo printed on it. Mike had many pins on his messenger bag, but he was sure he never had one like this. Then, something else caught his eye. A piece of paper was stuck in the slats of his locker door.

  
  
**When you said you liked Dexter, I hope you meant this and not that old cartoon. - Secret Admirer**

———————————————————

The pin and note lay on the picnic table where Mike, Rachel, Trevor and Jenny always met after school was over. Mike was sprawled out on one of the benches with his head buried in his arms. He was honestly second guessing his decision to tell his friends. Rachel and Jenny were ecstatic about the secret admirer since he was a distraction from Harvey. Trevor just thought it was hilarious.

“Come on Mike,” Jenny begged. “Think who else knows you like Dexter?”

“You know I only talk to you guys,” Mike replied.

“Wait,” Rachel said. “You did compare Romeo’s need to love to Dexter’s need to kill in English the other day.”

“Dude, seriously?” Trevor asked.

“That’s good. So we have it narrowed down to someone in your English class. Much better,” Jenny said.

“No, it’s worse,” Mike said. “I’m going to be even more self conscious in that class knowing one of them likes me.”

“Not likes you,” Jenny corrected. “Admires you.”

“Please. Make it stop.”

Mike wanted nothing more than to disappear, but he realized it was mostly due to his friends’s teasing. He was not embarrassed by the gift. In fact, he was enamored. It was really sweet that someone had paid attention to one small thing he said and remembered it. Mike straightened up, grabbed the pin and added it to his collection. Rachel and Jenny smiled knowingly and Trevor laughed some more.

“Whatever. It’s a free pin, alright?” Mike said, but he knew the goofy grin on his face gave him away. “I’ve got Calculus homework, so I gotta go. See you guys tomorrow.”

Mike started to walk home, his hand resting on the new addition to his bag. It probably was a one time thing, he told himself. Whoever it was would realize what a mistake they made and there would be no more gifts. Mike could live with that.

———————————————————

The next day Mike was early to English class that even Mr. Louis was not in the classroom. Mike picked up his composition notebook from the pile of school books and began to write. He may not have been good at deciphering other authors’s messages, but Mike liked writing his own stories. There was something about creating a while other world unlike the one he lived in. He did not hate life, but it sometimes felt good to escape. Mike was lost in the sound of his pen gliding across the page that he did not hear Harvey and his friend Donna come in. Instead of standing by Donna’s desk as he usually did before class started, Harvey immediately sat down next to Mike.

“You could be the next Shakespeare,” he said, startling Mike.

“That’s a horrible thing to say,” Mike replied. “I don’t want to be boring.”

Harvey laughed, causing Donna to glare back a them. “I meant famous kid.”

“I’m as old as you are, and I highly doubt anyone will ever be as famous as him.”

“I have to disagree. J.K. Rowling is probably just as famous. Harry Potter has been translated into at least as many languages as Shakespeare’s plays. Plus, she has a theme park.”

“That’s only because King Lear the roller coaster would be, oh what’s the word? Boring.”

Mike had completely abandoned his story. He wondered why he was wasting time Harvey was spending on him, Mike of all people, by bickering over ridiculous things. It surprised him that it was kind of fun because Harvey, unlike Mike’s friends, did not back down. Harvey seemed to be enjoying himself as well.

“I don’t know. I think they could pull it off. For instance, the Tunnel of Love would be pitch black to play up on the theme of blindness.”

“The teen to young adult crowed would really love that,” Mike said, and Harvey laughed again. Mike could get used to that. “You’re actually a big nerd at heart, aren’t you?”

“What Mikey?” Harvey asked. Mike would never admit the nickname made him practically swoon. “Do you think the other cliques only talk about parties and drinking and getting laid?”

“Everyone who hit puberty talks about getting laid in on way or another,” Mike pointed out. He tried not to think about the time Rachel told him she lost her virginity when her family went to Greece that summer and then expected him in turn to open up concerning his sex life.

“I suppose that’s true,” Harvey said with a smirk. “However, other than that, we don’t fit the stereotype. Donna, for example, talks endlessly about drama club.”

“There’s only three of us in the room. I can hear you,” Donna said.

“And with that hearing you will have an illustrious career on Broadway.”

Mike was just going to get Harvey’s attention back on him, but other students began to file in, including Rachel. She gave Mike a look and he simply shrugged his shoulders. She was probably upset that he never called the night before to let her know when he was free to go out with that guy. The appearance of the secret admirer should have been cause enough to wait, Mike thought. He would let that, and the conversation with Harvey, blow over first. To avoid any probing questions, Mike dodged out of the room as soon as the bell rang and headed to his locker.

‘Funny,’ Mike thought upon seeing the door slightly ajar. He could have sworn he had shut it after getting his books that morning. He would die of embarrassment if it had been open for half the day and anything had been taken. Mike opened it slowly, afraid to look. Inspecting closely, he assessed nothing was missing. There was a notebook that had not been there, though, sitting on top of the rest of his books. Mike opened to the first page and stared in disbelief.

  
  
**I know you love to write. Could always use one of these. - SA**

Rachel came marching down the hall looking upset. “Why didn’t you wait for me after English?” she asked.

“Hey Rach? He broke into my locker.”

“Who? Was it Greg again? You have to tell Miss Pearson about him.”

“It wasn’t Greg.” Mike handed the notebook to Rachel. “I’m always writing in English class.”

Rachel smiled. “So you’re going to let Jenny and me help you find out who he is?”

“I guess. I mean, that’ll defeat the purpose of ‘secret’ but yeah.”

“Oh, this is so exciting. It’s like something out of a romance.”

“Don’t compare it to Shakespeare. I don’t think I can take any more Shakespeare.”

———————————————————

Jenny insisted everyone come over her house once Rachel told her the news of the second gift. Trevor had gone to pick up some pizza and had left Mike at the mercy of the two girls. Jenny was busy at her laptop making a spread sheet of Mr. Louis’s class.

“Now, we’ll change all girls’s names to green,” she explained. “It could possibly be a girl, but you came out two years ago. Most people know. Then, any guy we eliminate we’ll change their name to red.”

“Eliminate Greg,” Rachel said. “He’s hated Mike since the first grade.”

“And Luke,” Mike added. “Huge homophobe.”

“Then Tony, John and Eric are currently seeing someone,” Jenny said, clicking away.

“I’m pretty sure Francis isn’t interested in dating anyone,” Rachel said. “He only cares about school work.”

“Too bad your competition doesn’t want you,” Jenny teased. “That would be hot. So, that leaves James, Henry, Tim, Nick, Ben and Harvey.”

“Just eliminate Harvey now and spare me the humiliation,” Mike mumbled.

“Hey, you never know.” Jenny hit save and smiled. “Now it’s time to do some digging to figure out who of the lucky six is Mr. Admirer.”

“Why is my name blue?” Mike asked.

“I like blue.”

Trevor walked in then and set the pizza on the table. He leaned over Jenny’s shoulder, laughed when he saw the spread sheet and then gave her a quick kiss.

“This is providing endless entertainment man,” he said.

Mike groaned. “Oh yes. My love life is hilarious.”

———————————————————

The secret admirer must have stopped by Mike’s locker after the last bell the day before. Mike came in first thing in the morning to see something taped to the front of the door. Trevor was with him and pulled it off before Mike could see it.

“Okay, your secret admirer has awful taste,” Trevor said. “This thing is ugly. I don’t care what he says.”

“Give it to me,” Mike said and grabbed what he could see now was a stuffed animal.

  
  
**I’m not sure what this is supposed to be. A whale? A seal? He’s sort of cute. Not as cute as you. -SA**

“Mike, are you blushing?”

“I am not,” Mike said defensively, but he knew that he was. His secret admirer called him cute. Obviously the admirer liked him, but this was different than the two previous notes which had only mentioned the gifts.

“You have got to show that thing to Jenny and Rach. They’re going to love it.”

Mike smiled and tucked the stuffed animal under his arm and got his books. “I’ll show Rachel before Mr. Louis starts gushing over King Lear.”

“But then your prince charming will see.”

“And he’ll know that I appreciate the gesture.”

“You are too smart to still be in this dump,” Trevor muttered. “Okay, see you later. Don’t wanna be late for chemistry.”

Mike waved and then headed to his first class. It felt like the day was dragging on more than usual, and Mike was always anticipating English. When it was finally time for that period, Mike dashed in the room. Most of the class was already seated. Nick, being the closest to the door, stared at Mike and scoffed.

“What’s with the ugly doll Ross?” he asked.

Mike ignored him and smiled at Rachel. She was biting her lip in an attempt to stop herself from laughing. She gave him a thumbs up. Donna looked over to see what was going on and knocked her books off her desk by accident.

“Here, let me help,” Mike said.

“You don’t have to. Thanks though.”

“No problem.” Mike set the books back on Donna’s desk and walked over to his.

Mr. Louis came in then. “Okay guys. We’re doing another group project for the next couple of days. I’m going to separate you into couples and you will act out a scene of your choice. Group one? Mike and Harvey.”

As Mr. Louis continued to divide the class, Harvey pulled his desk up next to Mike’s.

“The Fantastic Duo together again,” Harvey said.

“Isn’t it Fantastic Four?” Mike teased.

“Now how would I know that?” Harvey smiled and picked up his book. “So we should pick a scene where your whale slash seal thing can play a role.”

“Uh, King Lear does not like being called ‘thing.’ He is royalty. You will treat him as such.”

For a second, Mike feared he had gone too far. Harvey had stood up, and Mike just knew he was going to ask Mr. Louis to switch partners. Instead, he bowed. “Your highness. My apologies.”

———————————————————

———————————————————

Mike felt ridiculous standing in front of his own locker debating if he should go through with it. Several days had passed, the secret admirer had stopped leaving presents and Mike was no closer to discovering who it was. The piece of paper, light as air, felt like a dead weight in his hands. Before he could second guess himself, Mike taped it to his locker and ran to class.

  
  
**Will I ever find out who you are?**

The day passed slowly. Even English was a bore. The students were given the period to work on their projects. Mike beamed and began to talk about his plans but stopped short when he noticed that Harvey was sulking.

“Hey, are you okay?” Mike asked, concerned.

“Yeah, just peachy,” Harvey muttered. “Look, I don’t feel like doing this right now. Can we agree that whatever you got planned there is good without going over it? Then we’ll practice our lines on our own time?”

“Uh, sure. Okay. We can talk about whatever’s bugging you instead, if you’d like.”

“I don’t think so.” Harvey stood up and walked to Mr. Louis’s desk. “Can I go see the nurse?”

So Harvey was sick, Mike thought. While he worried for the other boy’s well being, he was just glad that it was not something more serious than possibly the common cold. With his partner missing, Mike brought out his notebook from the secret admirer and began to write. By the time the bell rang, he had filled nearly ten pages, and they were all about Harvey.

The note was gone from Mike’s locker before the end of the day. Mike sighed and admitted defeat. Someone must have ripped it off before the admirer could see it, or he himself did and left no response. Mike should not have gotten caught up with the mystery. He knew better than that. He grabbed his bag and headed for the door only to be intercepted by Harvey.

“Mike, I’m sorry about English class,” he said. “I just wasn’t feeling good. We should run over our lines together. I’ve got practice all weekend, so Monday good for you?”

“I’m busy Monday,” Mike said, smiling to himself at the thought of Movie Mondays and how his grandmother always insisted. “Tuesday instead?”

“Sounds good to me. See you in class then.”

“Good luck at practice,” Mike said as Harvey walked away. He headed out to meet up with his friends and cursed himself for crushing on not one but two unattainable guys.

———————————————————

Monday morning greeted Mike with another gift. This time, Rachel and Jenny were there along with Trevor to see it.

“Is that what I think it is?” Jenny asked.

“That is indeed a CD babe,” Trevor said. “He made you a CD. Who even uses CDs anymore?”

“I think this is the best gift yet,” Rachel said. “What songs he picked could be very telling. What does the note say Mike?”

  
  
**Maybe this will give you a clue to my identity. -SA**

“He wants me to figure it out. He got my note.”

“You left him a note?” Trevor asked.

“That’s great Mike,” Rachel said. “You can listen to it when you get home and talk to him in English tomorrow.”

“This is so romantic,” Jenny added.

The jewel case rested in the bottom of Mike’s messenger bag, and he could not help but be anxious all day. He would finally figure out who had been leaving him the sweet gifts. Who had called him cute. Mike realized he was not paying much attention when Harvey started snapping his fingers in Mike’s face.

“Welcome back to earth space cadet. Care to share with Houston what your problem is?”

“Oh, sorry Harvey,” Mike said quietly. “I’ve got something else on my mind.”

Harvey surprisingly just smiled and let it go. He walked with Mike out of class when the bell rang and once again verified their meeting the next day. Mike did not know if he was more excited for hanging out with Harvey, even if it was for a school project, or listening to the secret admirer’s mix. As soon as he got home, he put it in, turning the volume on his laptop all the way up.

The mix was interesting, ranging from classic rock such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones to full on orchestras performing Bach and Beethoven. It was the last track, however, that solved the mystery. It was Hamlet’s famous soliloquy. It was not from the horrible Mel Gibson version but rather an actual stage performance recording.

“Holy shit,” Mike whispered.

———————————————————

“It isn’t funny. I’d like you to stop,” Mike said. He had been working up to tell Harvey the entire time they had been practicing. It had been a ‘now or never’ situation, so he blurted it out as Harvey was acting.

“Well, I thought I was doing a good job,” Harvey said smugly.

“I wasn’t talking about that. The gifts? They’re not funny. You and your friends had your little laugh at my expense, and I’d appreciate it if you don’t do it again.”

Harvey looked shocked at first and then grinned. “Mike, do you know why I stopped giving you gifts until I got your note?”

“Probably because you guys thought you had your fun until I set myself up for even more humiliation. You know, I honestly thought you were nice, but this is worse than anything Greg has ever done.”

“Oh Mike.” Harvey reached out to touch his cheek, but Mike pulled away fast. “I stopped because Donna saw the stuffed animal in class. She had been with me when I got it. She yelled at me to not mess around with you. It made me question if you did truly like me back, and I was in the worst mood for days. I’m not mad at her, though. She was only looking out for both of us. Then… I got your note. Mike, you have no idea how happy it made me. I knew I had to tell you it was me, but I’m not usually good at emotions.”

“So you made the CD?”

“Yeah, I knew if the music didn’t give it away, Hamlet would have hit you over the head with the answer.”

“The gifts were really sweet,” Mike said, staring at the floor. He was too embarrassed to look at Harvey after accusing him of being cruel. “I should say thank you.”

“You’re welcome. There’s, uh, one more gift I haven’t given you yet.”

“What’s that?” Mike asked. Harvey leaned in close, and this time Mike did not move. Harvey brushed his lips over Mike’s in the most chaste of kisses.

“I really do admire you.”

“And I you.”

“You’re been reading too much Shakespeare,” Harvey said with a laugh.

———————————————————

  
  



End file.
